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Banning Fleet vehicles

DiamondWash

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Has anybody banned a certain company that just completely destroyed your facility on a daily basis? We have fleets of FedEx vehicles on our Wash Club that frequently wash BUT "each box truck" leaves a $40-$60 mud/sand mess in each bay rendering unusable I say 40-60 because we have to reinsert our washdown card 2-3 times at $20 cap when just prepping the bay to shovel the mud/sand out. Regular customers have told me they are not coming back because of them and whatever money I thought I make from FedEx is quickly respent washing their mess. Sorry for the rant 😡🤬
 

eckert16

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Check with your lawyer... pretty sure FedEx signed up to wash their vehicles at you carwash, and you agreed to provide them the service; and the confirmed by providing them access via your club. Did you have them sign for a limit on how much dirt you're wiling to wash off their vehicles? Caution is advised if you are now looking to change the agreement rules with a company that probably has some pretty big lawyers on board.
 

traveler17

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Would think he could cancel the contract at his discretion.
 

DiamondWash

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By 7:30 am this is what my self serves looks like from 3 FedEx trucks and this is a very light mess. Between 3 trucks total spent $20.50


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Greg Pack

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Good luck, I think I'd talk to the fleet manager and see if an agreement could be reached, if not just cancel the contract as soon as provisions allow,

I don't want to be the wash for everyone. I'm a nice suburb and 95% of my customers are passenger cars. We have a junk removal company that uses ours and they want to keep a clean fleet. However, the local landfill is muddy and they can make quite a mess. Ironically a chronic mess maker is a guy that runs a construction debris company and was in the SS business years ago. His attitude is that mess is an inevitable part of the business.
 

JMMUSTANG

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Why don’t you make one bay for FedEx and tall trucks such as them. Post in bay sign that says to blow dirt into drain before leaving. I’m sure some won’t read or care what the sign states but it’s worth a try.
Reduce the height of the other bays for cars and suv height with a cross bar and signage.
I posted signs in each bay and on the entrance sign to the property like this also stating there is a $300 fine.
You should also state that each vehicle is captured on video.
This helped me a lot. There’s always an ass or 5 but it made a difference for me.
 
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mac

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Can you not just "disconnect" their cards? Say you are having a problem with your server and just stall them. If they come back with cash get a police restraining order. They are not playing nice so don't see why you should.
 

MudMoney

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I see where you are losing money with them.I sell FedEx tokens with no discount and my market is rural. I have an attended wash due to the mud factor.
 

MEP001

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This is only somewhat related as I don't do any fleet accounts or token sales to companies, but I have banned several businesses from my wash, the latest of which was a concrete company. One of their guys came in and sprayed dry cement mix off a flatbed truck and left it all over the bay walls, floor, and ten feet out on the lot. It took me four hours to clean it up. I called the company and told them to warn their guys that they'd get a criminal trespass warrant if they came back, and if the driver had a warrant or was illegal (The latter highly likely) he'd go to jail and their truck impounded, which could cost $1,000 or more to get out.
 

Randy

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Years ago I had a fleet account with a national lumber company to wash their crew trucks that took they crews up into the woods. They washed about 20 crew trucks a week. The only stipulation I had was they had to clean up the bay after each wash, which they did. They eventually built their own wash facilities at their yard. I’d call FedEx and tell them to clean up the bay after each wash or don’t come back. In our area FedEx ground is not owned by FedEx but by a contractor, FedEx air is owned by FedEx.
 

DiamondWash

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Well, I'm notifying all my fleet wash club managers that starting next Monday, March 8th a $150 Clean-up fee is being added to the monthly invoice, every FedEx fleet acct has this problem so if they bitch n moan they can wash at their terminal and see just the ordeal I have to go through EVERYDAY and I don't want them to wash their mess into the pits as I just had them pumped last week at $1,529.90 then most recently pumped late November 2020 and with the recent storm that shut us down for 2 weeks and 2020 that wasn't an easy pill to swallow.
 

MEP001

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Well, I'm notifying all my fleet wash club managers that starting next Monday, March 8th a $150 Clean-up fee is being added to the monthly invoice
If a $150 monthly fee doesn't stop them, make it for each day they leave the place like that.
 

Randy

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Geez Steve, why don’t you put up a sign that says “We only allow clean vehicles to use this wash facility, dirty vehicles will be charged a $150 clean up fee” How do you intend to collect the $150 clean up fee?
 

soapy

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What I do with fleet vehicles is a issue a wash card with prepaid amounts on them. I tell them if your guys leave the bays the dirty I will clean up the mess and deduct what ever amount of time I have spent to clean up after them. They are better about cleaning the bays but when they don't I can check cameras and the wash card history to see who used the bay. If it is one of my prepaid accounts they get at least $10 deducted from the prepaid balance.
 

MEP001

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Geez Steve, why don’t you put up a sign that says “We only allow clean vehicles to use this wash facility, dirty vehicles will be charged a $150 clean up fee” How do you intend to collect the $150 clean up fee?
I think the idea was to try and stop them from making the messes in the first place, or get them to cancel their account because they don't like the cleanup fee. They're leaving the bays unusable for any other customers, IMO that's a real problem.
 

Randy

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I think the idea was to try and stop them from making the messes in the first place, or get them to cancel their account because they don't like the cleanup fee. They're leaving the bays unusable for any other customers, IMO that's a real problem.
Miles, I get that, it is problem. It comes with being in the self-serve car wash business. If your not there to police who washes and doesn't and run off those who come in caked with mud then you'd better except to clean up mud.
 

cooll903

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im getting ready to ban DTN from my bays. there is a couple of fleet trucks that destroy my bays on sundays when im not there but have them on cameras leaving a mess of mud. also getting ready to go to the cops too to get them banned there too so if they do come on the property i can have them arrested for trespassing.
 

MEP001

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See if your city can set up a blanket criminal trespass warrant for your property. Right now I have to be on site and need to inform the person that they aren't welcome before the cops can issue a CTW, but with a blanket one I can do it from home.
 
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